At Bolgatanga, voters in all the 13 constituencies of the Upper East Region turned out in their numbers at polling stations on Sunday to cast their votes.

In Bolgatanga Central, people started queuing at 0530 hours notwithstanding the cold harmattan morning. Most polling stations that had more than 500 registered voters had an average number of 80 persons in queue by 7.00hrs.

At the Zamstec Polling Stations A and B, where 848 and 779 people had registered respectively, three people had voted by 7.15hrs while seven voted at station B, the others were waiting in queues. At the Adabase Primary 'A' and Primary 'B' polling stations where 616 people and 622 people registered respectively, 35 people had voted as at 0750 hours at Primary 'A' while 71 had cast their votes at Primary B by 0800 hours.

At the Experimental A and B polling stations, 66 people and 38 people had voted respectively by 0810 hours from the total numbers of 1037 and 881 registered. At the Atulbabisi Day Nursery A, 41 people had voted out of the 432 registered while 35 voted 0850 hours at Day Nursery B, which had 221 registered voters.

Politics Turnout Elections 26 Bolgatanga

Presiding Officers at many of the stations complained that they had to refer people with transfer forms because their names could not be found on the lists they had received.

Mr. Clement Onmeba, Presiding Officer at the Experimental B polling station, appealed to the Electoral Commission to provide them with the Master List of transfer voters so they would know exactly where to direct those who turn up with the forms to vote. At the Local Council 'A' polling station, Presiding Officer, Mr Ayamga Samuel, had put aside five booklets of the presidential ballots because they all had light marks similar to thumb prints on the blank space adjacent the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate's photo. At Namolo Primary School 'A' polling station in the Navrongo Central Constituency, 200 people had cast their votes at 1000 hours out of 710 registered voters.

At the Navrongo Secondary School Polling Station 'A' 180 people had voted as at 0945 hours out of 870 registered voters, while 186 had voted out of 831 registered voters as at 1000 hours at the Navrongo Secondary School Polling Station 'B'. At Timonde Primary School Polling Station in the Zebilla Constituency where there are 725 registered voters, the exercise had not taken off as at 0846 hours due to the late arrival of voting material. At Tanga Primary Polling Station in the same constituency, there were 421 voters on the register but voting had not begun at the time of visit at 0735 hours due to late arrival of polling materials.

Politics Voting Regions 27 Bolgatanga

Proceedings have been smooth in the Bawku Central and Garu constituencies so far. At the Zuli Primary School polling station in Bawku Central, 45 people had cast their votes at 0937 hours out of a total of 469 registered voters.

At the St. Anthony's Primary Polling Station also in the Bawku Central constituency, there were 871 voters on the register out of which 344 had voted as at 0900 hours. At Kulore Polling station, 46 people had voted out 521 on the register. At Nomboko polling station in the Garu constituency, the Presiding Officer, Mr. Hamidu Seeta, said polling had begun at 0720 hours because one of the ballot boxes had no lid. Eventually all parties present there agreed that a cardboard be used as an improvised lid, before the exercise got underway. The centre had 824 voters on its register out of which 20 had voted as at 0835 hours. At the Garu District Assembly Primary polling station, 159 people had voted as at 0859 hours out of 1095 registered voters. At the Garu Catholic Kindergarten polling station, 139 people had voted as at 0922 hours, out of 671 registered voters. At the Anafobisi polling Station in the Bongo Constituency, 63 people had voted as at 0815 hours out of 414 registered voters. At the Balungu Marketsquare in the same constituency, 100 people had cast their votes at 080 hours out of 691 registered voters. At the Afoko Primary School polling station in the Builsa North Constituency, 60 people had voted at 0840 hours out of 68 registered voters. At the Chuchuliga Primary School polling station in the same constituency, the start of voting was delayed by about an hour due to the late arrival of material from Sandema. Out of 844 registered voters, four people had cast their votes as at 0820 hours. At the Sandema Local Council 'A' Polling Station, 83 people had voted out of 915 registered voters as at 0855 hours. The Presiding Officers at all the polling centres said the take off of the exercise had been smooth, albeit late in some places, with agents of the political parties and independent candidates satisfied with proceedings so far. The cause of delay in all polling centres where voting failed to take off at 0700 hours was the late arrival of electoral materials. 07 Dec 08